My dad would have liked the NEC. He was pernickety, precise and exacting. His Morris Minor had a handbook: he read it; he followed it. The tyre pressures were checked weekly, so too were the oil level and the water; the windscreen and the headlights were always wiped clean before driving off – it said this was vital, in the handbook. The NEC is a handbook too. Trouble is, these days the handbook in my flash Mercedes is safely tucked away somewhere. Never seen the light of day. As for tampering with my dipstick, I don’t even know how to get under the bonnet. I like my Mercedes, and I like the NEC contract – but reading the instructions is a tad too tiresome.

The plain flaw in the NEC is not the document. Instead it is in the ordinary everyday human requirement to actually get stuck in and work to it every day 

In short, no matter how clever and how well done it is, or how much sense it makes, it is a fact that the NEC contract has a deep flaw. Like my dad’s car, it needs attention morning, noon and night. Take a look at the dispute Northern Ireland Housing Executive vs Healthy Buildings (Ireland) Ltd. It was a professional services NEC contract for consulting and survey works on asbestos risk on a couple of buildings in Belfast. Within a few weeks of making a start there was an instruction, in the site minutes, changing the scope. 

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